12 Days of Edible Gifts: Hazelnut Kiss Cookies

Every holiday season, I love indulging in those classic peanut butter cookies dimpled with a Hershey Kiss center. For our 12 Days of Edible Gifts, I experimented with this same concept to create a Ferrero Rocher-inspired treat. The combination of hazelnuts and chocolate is always divinely delicious and these crumbly hazelnut cookies with chocolate middles are no exception. They're simple to make and easily gifted in a festive basket or decorative to-go container. To make these delectable cookies for your friends and family, read more.

Hazelnut Kiss Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Place whole hazelnuts on a large cookie sheet. Bake for 8-12 minutes until fragrant. Be careful to not burn the nuts. Fresh from the oven place hazelnuts in a clean dish towel, rub against the towel to remove the skin. Grind or finely chop hazelnuts.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix eggs, yolks and vanilla well. Combine flour and salt and add a third at a time to the creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. Stir in nuts.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie baking sheets. Flatten each ball and place a Hershey Kiss in the center of each cookie.

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes until cookies have set. Only the bottom of cookie will turn golden brown. Watch the cookies closely as the tip of the chocolate can burn. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Hi drmiya,
There are always the stubborn ones! You can try to roast them a little longer or just make sure it is ground well and no one will notice a little skin!;) I hope you love them as much as me! Good Luck!

My mistake the roasted nuts once the skins have removed should be ground in a food processor or finely chopped. The ingredient list calls for ground nuts but I am sorry for any confusion! I have fixed it! ;)

I agree with you, bvfashion, it definitely looks like a step is missing!
I tried to play detective and find the recipe online elsewhere (no luck) or to find a similar recipe, and the best I could come up with was to put the skinned roasted nuts in a food processor and grind very fine.

mmm sounds yummy! when i make the peanut butter ones, instead of a hershey's kiss i'll sometimes use a reese's mini peanut butter cup. wonder how it would taste with the hazelnut... too much going on or a good combo?